12-day Kenya & Tanzania trip

Nairobi

Day 1: Welcome to Nairobi

Jambo! Welcome to Kenya. Your adventure begins with a welcome reception at the airport. A driver will pick you up on arrival and then transfer you to the hotel for check in and overnight.

Today you have several options: The National Museum, the Karen Blixen Museum, the Bomas of Kenya or the Giraffe Center. What do you prefer?

Amboseli National Park

Day 2: Amboseli National Park

Today, you will start with a delicious breakfast followed by a briefing by the guide. After checking out at the hotel, you will drive to Amboseli National Park. There will be an afternoon game drive en route to your lodge. Your accommodation for the next two nights is a comfortable lodge located in the heart of the National Park with stunning views of Mount Kilimanjaro, which looms dramatically on the skyline.

The name Amboseli comes from the Maa word for ‘salty, dusty place’, a reference to the salty volcanic ash that spewed from the volcano tens of thousands of years ago. The park is one of the most fascinatingly diverse in the continent, with five distinct habitats – open grasslands, acacia woods, scrub steppe, swamps and marshland.

Amboseli National Park

Day 3: Amazing Wildlife of Amboseli

Let's venture into Amboseli National park for a full day's game drive. The game drive will take you across this vast lakebed - often dry, but still very swampy in areas. Amboseli is best known for its great herds of elephant - you will often find many of them standing knee-deep in the water, spraying themselves to keep cool. But there's a lot of other game here too - cheetah, buffalo, giraffe, many types of gazelle and other plains game - and it's all set against the amazing backdrop of majestic Mount Kilimanjaro showing all its glory. Make sure you take your camera with you!

Lake Nakuru National Park

Day 4: Home to the Rhinos

Board your safari vehicle and travel to Lake Nakuru National Park. Situated in the heart of the Great Rift Valley, Lake Nakuru National Park's small and compact area, based around the often flamingo-filled lake, makes a great location for spotting wildlife. Along with the other members of the Big Five game, Lake Nakuru is home to rhinos and there will be a good chance of spotting and photographing one of these magnificent beasts.

Masai Mara Game Reserve

Day 5: Experience Dramatic Skies

After breakfast, you will check out and proceed to Masai Mara with an enroute game drive. The Masai Mara is the quintessential African experience, with sparse open plains, dramatic skies and some of the world's most tremendous animals. After check in at your lodge, why not sit down to some lunch? And after, it's time to jump back on board the vehicle and go for a game drive through the wilderness of the Mara.

Masai Mara Game Reserve

Day 6: High Above the Mara

After a breakfast at the camp, you start out in the Mara with full day game drives. You will explore this diverse environment and most likely see a multitude of wildlife.

Here, an option is a balloon ride over the Mara at sunrise - an unforgettable experience. If you have pre-booked this, you will be picked up before dawn and driven to the launch site for a safety briefing from your pilot. Then you will glide through the dawn, sometimes at tree height, which provides amazing photo opportunities. Sometimes you will ascend, getting an overview of the enormity of the plains and of the early morning movements of the teeming herds. After landing, you will be treated to a bush breakfast, and driven back to your lodge.

Lake Victoria

Day 7: The Shores of Lake Victoria

Today you travel towards the Kenya-Tanzania border and to the shores of Lake Victoria. This is not only Africa's largest lake – it's the largest tropical lake in the world. Its shores are shared by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

There are plenty of activities to choose from while you're here. You might like to hire a bicycle and explore the lake's surrounds. Or what about visiting an African marketplace? Here you will have the chance to have conversations with the locals of Musoma.

Tonight you will sleep in a bungalow along the shore of the lake. A wonderful place to spend your night!

Serengeti National Park

Day 8: In the Green of Serengeti National Park

From Lake Victoria you will travel to the gate of Serengeti National Park on a smooth road and enjoy a picnic at the entrance to the park. Enter the Serengeti and take a game drive en route to your camp. The wide-open plains of the Serengeti – green after the rains, brown and burnt in the dry season – are home to thousands of hoofed animals and fierce predators. Flat and rolling, with long grass and acacia trees, these plains get their name from the Maasai word Siringet – 'The place where the land moves on forever'. Let's experience this beautiful place!

Serengeti National Park

Day 9: Amongst African Lions

Enjoy morning and afternoon game drives, with a chance to relax at the lodge during the warmer part of the day. Your chances of seeing four of the Big Five game (African lion, African elephant, Cape buffalo and African leopard) are excellent. The endangered black rhino is much harder to come across. Let's try to spot them, maybe we are lucky today!

Today, there's also the option of a balloon ride over the park. You will be picked up before dawn and driven to the launch site.

Ngoro Ngoro Conservation Area

Day 10: Crater of Ngoro Ngoro

Enjoy a game drive on your way out of the park today. After lunch you will enter the Ngoro Ngoro Conservation area. Your destination today is the rim of the crater. It can get very cold on the crater rim, particularly during the winter months (June-August) when temperatures drop below zero. Even in the summer months it can be surprisingly chilly at night. So, be sure to bring some warm clothes!

Ngoro Ngoro Crater

Day 11: Deep in the Crater

This morning after breakfast, you will proceed to explore the worldrenowned Ngoro Ngoro Crater, widely regarded as a microcosm of natural habitats in Africa and often touted as a veritable Garden of Eden.

Within this crater lies every type of ecosystem, including riverine forests, open plains, freshwater and alkaline lakes. Ngoro Ngoro Crater is the remnants of an ancient volcano caldera, and within its 300 square kilometers is a remarkable concentration of wildlife.

Thereafter you will drive back through the highlands to the rim of the crater.

Ngoro Ngoro Crater

Day 12: Goodbye Wildlife

Today is your final day! You have had uncountable new experiences on your trip. Share them with your family and friends back home or take them with you on your next adventure. A transfer to the airport is arranged, check-in will be stress free.

See you soon!